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Abstract

Over the last few election cycles, political ad budgets have skyrocketed. With the political landscape continuing to embrace higher levels of political ad spend, one must wonder: is it worth it? This paper analyzes Democratic advertising spending on the United States presidential elections of 2012 and 2016 in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. By deploying a fixed-effect model that accounts for county turnout, media market spending, and election year, this paper finds that political ad spending is arguably ineffective and does not significantly influence Democratic voter turnout.

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